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Media Coverage of Middletown

I continue to be baffled by how the local media choose their news stories.

I’ll start today with a positive news story. I’d like to thank Channel 12 and Larry Davis for their nice story on our chronic nuisance ordinance and how it is working to put landlords on notice for problem properties. We genuinely appreciate the good press.

However… my wife and I were watching a taped show last night. As we finish the show and we turned cable back on, it just happened to be right at the beginning of a news cast from another network.

The lead story is “Man Defecates at Middletown School.” The reporter talks about how a man pooped in public and elementary school kids saw it. Upon contacting the school district, the reporter states towards the end of the article that the act wasn’t actually performed on school property but just near a school.

So the lead story is now “man poops near a school.” I lean over and tell my wife, “Wow, it must be a really slow news night if a man pooping near a school in Middletown is the most newsworthy story they have today.”

I was wrong, however. The second story was a woman severely stabbed in Over the Rhine. The third story was a sexual assault of a woman at Miami University.

If people in the area wonder why Middletown feels a little picked on sometimes, then someone has to explain to me how a man pooping near a school in Middletown is more news worthy and important than a woman being stabbed and a woman being sexually assaulted.

I guess I just don’t get it.

Thank you again to Channel 12 for the story last night and the Journal for their earlier story. I know the media has to cover good and bad stories. How they choose to frame the story and where they put the story in the news cast says a lot about their integrity and character. I can appreciate a balanced story even when the facts aren’t what I would have hoped for.

I try to be careful not to lump all reporters or all media into one broad category. As with Police Departments, city governments, attorneys and any other group, a few bad apples can taint the entire profession. There are good and bad reporters and there are good and bad editors out there. I hope that the media continues to evolve and consider what they are saying and the choices they can make in how they say it. Balance is the key for me.

Yes, we have had overdoses. So has every

city in Ohio. Don’t make it any better or any worse than it really is.

In general, true “Who-What-Why-When-How” journalism is dead. It is, above all else, entertainment and heaven knows, the public loves to be entertained. It’s like the old Don Henley song: “I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me somethin’, somethin’ I can use
People love it when you lose, they love dirty laundry.”
It’s not so much the fault of our entertainers (“journalists”) as it is with a public that loves to celebrate the failure of others. Social media is aflame with Middletown jokes and false perceptions. Middletown has become the public’s latest “whipping boy.” It is not surprising that the “shock and awe” story of a man defecating near a school playground would take precedent- it’s the law of supply and demand. The public eats this stuff up and “journalists” are more than happy to serve it up. Bon apetitit!

It would be covered regardless of where it occurred. Bizarre / strange behavior attracts attention. That’s how the media works. Coverage of an adult pooping outside of a school is more unusual than a stabbing/assault, and this will likely peak more viewer interest regardless of merits. The media is a business, and this “clickbait” trend is nothing new.

Middletown has plenty of issues that need to be addressed, and this forum is a great opportunity to address them. Instead, we want to condemn stories about people defecating in public and the image it paints of our city. Is the public image really all that inaccurate?

I’d like to this it is that inaccurate, yes. Middletown definitely has its share of problems, but so does every other city in the greater Cincinnati/Dayton region. We all have some share of poverty, crime, drugs. All I ask is that they cover everyone equally and in a balanced manner. I’ve spent a lot of time on this forum talking about the new buildings, new jobs and quality of life events going on throughout the city. Let’s focus on those as well as the negative.

You’re argument only holds if a man pooped outside of a school somewhere else and it wasn’t covered in order to respect the cities’ perception. If someone did this outside of a Springboro school, you think the media would ignore it? Give me a break.